Meet the Hub (formerly Steering Committee)
 Rosemary |
 Ruth |
 Tom |
 Anita |
 Lynda |
Andy Awaiting photo |
 Julia |
The Transition Chichester Steering Committee is made up of Rosemary Moon, Ruth Valerio, Tom Broughton, Anita van Roosum, Lynda Stone, Andy Collenette and Julia Sander.
Find out more about what has motivated the members to create this movement and their backgrounds.
“I have an insatiable curiosity about where food comes from” admits food writer Rosemary Moon. Simply eating good food is no longer enough - anyone who truly cares wants to know how their food is produced and the social and environmental stories behind it. “Eco-gastronomy - that’s what it is all about these days. Local food economies are really important in the fight to preserve independent retailing and here in Chichester, where we have good land to grow and raise a wide variety of foods, we have an abundance of truly local produce. And of course, the sea adds to the richness of our table. All we, as customers, have to do is make the little extra effort to Buy Local.”
“I’ve written 18 cookbooks, many of which have sold well around the world, but it is local food which is important to me now, and that’s why I have launched the MoonBites.info website, dealing with food and farming issues based on seasonal Chichester food.” “I’ve lived in Chichester for 27 years - all my married life - and it’s a beautiful place but, like most of our milk, it’s becoming homogenised. The Transition movement gives us, as individuals, the opportunity to make a difference to the place in which we live, to say This is Our community and this is what We want and We are prepared to make it happen. Community is a very important force - Transition Chichester is a community project and I am really pleased to be involved.”
I've been an active environmental campaigner since helping the local Green Party to their best result, 2nd with 24.5% of the vote, in the 1989 European elections. I have taken on various environmental voluntary roles including coordinator of Chichester Friends of the Earth leading to being elected as the representative of the South East England region on the national Friends of the Earth board for two years. I am currently a member of Manhood Peninsula Friends of the Earth enabling me to be a member of the Chichester District Council Environment Review Forum which I represent in the Chichester District Local Strategic Partnership. I am also a regular judge of the Chichester District Council's Green Business award.
My primary environmental interest is Climate change, especially renewable energy and I have presented a paper to the Chichester District Council on how to meet the entire domestic electricity demand of the district using indigenous renewable energy sources.
I would dearly love to see a local farmer enact a long standing desire to build a windfarm on the Manhood Peninsula, but hasn't for fear of 'frightening the natives'.
I've lived in Chichester for 14 years, on the Whyke Estate with my husband, Greg, and two young daughters, Mali and Jemba.
My interest in all-things-green has been a long journey, during which my eyes have been opened to what is going on in our world and then my life practices have tried slowly to follow suit. It began with an environmental questionnaire done in my church about ten years ago. I was embarrassed to realise that I couldn't tick a single thing and so determined to work my way through the list till I was doing every item. Once I started I couldn't stop and it soon turned into what has become a life's obsession…
I now write, speak and campaign regularly on the environment, particularly from a Christian perspective, helping Christians see why caring for 'God's creation' is a central part of the faith, and I'm on the Leadership Team of a Christian event that attracts 50,000 people annually. I wrote a book in 2004 called, L is for Lifestyle: Christian living that doesn't cost the earth, and a second edition is now out. I manage a project called Living Lightly 24-1 which comes out of the conservation organisation A Rocha and I am doing a part-time PhD at Kings College London in eco-theology.
Locally, I have an allotment which I share with friends and am part of a pig cooperative that I helped form in 2006 which is divided between two sites: one at Aldingbourne Nursery and the other at the Care Village at Walberton. I also run a food cooperative linked with Infinity Foods in Brighton. I co-chair the Whyke Estate Community Association and for the last few years have been very involved with community regeneration on that estate. It has been a real pleasure to see the estate change into being a lovely place to live.
I'm really excited about the Transition Initiative: it gives me hope that maybe, together, we can actually respond to our current situation and bring about some good.
Anita van Roosum
A long time ago, I guess in my early twenties, I recall standing on the front lawn of the UN building in Geneva. I noticed a beautiful sculpture of Planet Earth encased by an infinity of linked hands. This image seemed to connect with my own sense that my life would need to link up with others in a network of understanding and care for our mutual environment.
I have lived half my life in Spain in the lovely town of Altea on the Costa Blanca. We formed an ecology group and introduced the very first bottle banks. We fought to prevent the Council from turning the river into a cement canal; we campaigned and planted trees on the river bank. 2 weeks ago when I was back(May 2010), I saw how the local Council are now actually investing in the natural beauty by further planting, creating a place of relaxation in Nature for local people to enjoy. We worked a lot with school groups, collecting a huge heap of rubbish in the port and organising exhibitions about waste and recycling. We held workshops at Xmas on the seafront in the sun for kids to make their own cardboard Christmas trees instead of buying a real tree.
I left Spain 12 years ago but the friends from the ecology group days remain..guess what, they are interested in Transition now! Two of us will give a weekend Introduction to Transition later this year. Nobody knows much about it yet tho groups and cooperatives are forming, hungry for a different lifestyle more connected with the Earth and with each other. They want Altea to be a Transition Town.
Apart from ecology, I ran a small boutique business making hand dyed clothing, long calico dresses and Indian shirts. The town didn't know what to make of it but they all came and Boutique Mehitabel up on the hill where the donkeys walked by the door, was quite a success! Then, as by that time I had two small children, I needed a good playschool, so I started my own. Once again the town didn't know what to make of it but they all came and for the subsequent 8 years, La Escuelita was the place for Spanish parents who wanted a good start for their children.
So back in UK in 1997, after so many years away, I studied Decorative Effects,then Counselling and Yoga. All this plus the experience of being a part of two such diverse cultures feels wide and rich tho sometimes I do not know where I belong.
Finding the Transition movement does feel like belonging. Those linked hands around the globe had stayed with me always. Not surprisingly then when I came across Transition and read the Transition Handbook, it was immediately clear: here was an inspiring special opportunity to give skills, energy and experience to the great changes underway at the present time. .clearly, here was my place and here were my people.
Lynda Stone
My interest in the Transition movement has developed from my worry about what will be left for our children and my concern at our current wasteful lifestyles.
I moved to Chichester in 2005 and have recently moved into a house with a tiny garden. I've always gardened but for the first time I'm trying to grow vegetables and fruit. It's hard not to fill my new garden with pretty shrubs, but I'm hoping that my more useful plants will be just as rewarding. I'm hardly using my car these days and riding my bike every day, so I have a vested interest in making the city more bike-friendly! If people felt safer cycling more of us would leave our cars at home, and it would be a small contribution towards making Chichester a more pleasant place to live!
Andy Collenette
Awaiting profile
Julia Sander
I first got involved in environmental matters when living in rural Somerset in the 1970’s. A group of us met at a talk given by Jonathan Porritt to the local Ecology Party, and formed a wholefood cooperative. We started growing our own fruit and vegetables, baking bread and keeping chickens. The Ecology Party soon disappeared, but I’m still baking bread.
More recently, volunteering with VSO in West Africa was a life-changing experience for me. Working on development projects in remote villages made me reflect on how much we have lost the sense of community in the consumer society. The joie de vivre evident in even the poorest African communities brought home to me that living richly does not depend on material wealth.
I’m aware that as one of the ‘baby boomer’ generation, I’ve led an immensely privileged life, moving from post-war austerity to incredible affluence. I’m aware too of the appalling legacy our generation is leaving for those who follow us. I’ve got three young granddaughters and want to do everything I can to protect their future.
As a retired teacher, I have great faith in young people. They are full of energy and genuinely care about the environment. We need to reach out to them and get them involved in our Transition movement. I remember my 11 year old granddaughter’s reaction on hearing that UN research predicted that the effects of climate change would be far worse than expected. “Why are people still using their cars?” she asked. “Haven't they heard the news?” Why indeed!